


Locked out

by helpmeimstuckon



Series: FitzSimmons Drabbles [2]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, SHIELD 616 | The Bus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-17
Updated: 2014-11-17
Packaged: 2018-02-25 17:44:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2630651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helpmeimstuckon/pseuds/helpmeimstuckon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It had become a recurring problem. She still didn't understand how a man who could remember the molecular structure of almost any metal known to man can keep forgetting the one of metal that has practical application. And tonight of all nights.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Locked out

**Author's Note:**

> I'm pulling apart my drabbles in to single chap fics in the same series. This was #2

“...and then they expect us to stand, stand in my shoes! And stand there for the ten minute intro speech! It's a ridiculous cultural norm I will have none of it!” Jemma had been rambling on for the majority of their walk. A walk which had seemed a short few blocks on the way to the event, felt like a marathon after the night of schmoozing and pleasantries with academy big wigs. They had been accepting quite a large grant and a few little awards for advances in their field. They were in town for two weeks and were staying at the small flat they rented just on the outside of the direct city center. It was cheaper and cleaner than a hotel, and was right by everything they needed.  
“Jemma, calm down. This event was fine, the food was excellent, the standing bit was not that long, and this grant is incredible! It could mean a whole new era for our research! Who knows we might even be able to get a primate assistant for the BUS lab.”   
“First: we are not using the grant money to buy a monkey. Second: you were not standing in heels.” To emphasize the point she lifted the silver stilettos she kicked off as soon as they rounded the corner from the event hall. “You do not get to talk until you have to stand listening to ridiculous drabble in heels.”   
Leo rolled his eyes as they rounded the last corner. “I don't think we should bench the monkey idea right off, he could be a very useful thing to have. And you don't know if I've worn heels.”  
“No. Monkey. And I do know you’ve never worn heels, because you would have complained right off if you had.” Jemma shot him a cheeky grin as they strolled up the walk towards the door.   
“Fine, fine. What ever you say, Jemma.” He patted his jacket pockets searching for his key. “Oh, umm... Well, that's just.”   
“What?”  
“'What' what?”   
“'What' as in 'what is the noise for?'”   
“It's nothing.”  
“Liar, what is it?”  
Fitz murmured something under his breath checking his inside pockets.   
“What?”   
“I might have forgotten my key...”  
“FITZ! You're joking. Please tell me you're joking.”  
“I don't seem to be.” Jemma took a hold of the door knob and shook it. “Yes, that's going to help. Don't you have your keys?”  
“Do I look like I have any where to put a key in this dress?”  
“Well what about that little purse thing?”  
She cocked one eyebrow at him. “Does it look like I have space?”  
She did have a point. The long, slim fitting, dark blue gown did leave much to be wanted in the way of pockets. The dress had been a long time conversation on the BUS since the day it was announced that FitzSimmons was being recognized at the event. Skye was enthralled, immediately scouring the internet to find the pair the perfect outfits for the occasion. For Fitz she had found an Armani tux within an hour. It was already tailored and fitted to his measurements. She bought it before he had even seen it, claiming it didn't matter what he thought, he was going to wear it anyways. Simmons, however, was a more difficult find. Skye sat in the lab with her laptop, periodically pulling Simmons away from actual work to look at dresses, for weeks. Finally she found two gowns that were a true tossup. Fitz had heard the phrases “crystalline beading and princess waistline versus mermaid flair and Chantilly lace” one too many times for his liking. The dress they eventually chose was beautiful but it wasn't Simmons. It was Skye's glamourized version of Simmons. It was weird for him, and for Simmons as well. She was clearly uncomfortable with the attention the dress was getting her. He knew she would rather have her work be her legacy, and not her beauty.  
“I can not believe this.” Simmons said burying her face in her hands. “Every time Fitz! But tonight of all nights! And, and I told you not to forget your keys as we left!”   
Fitz pulled a face. He did remember her saying something along the lines of “I swear if you forget your keys I will end you.” He had been particularly forgetful since they landed in London. It had been a difficult two weeks. He didn't know what was wrong with him. If she had mentioned it he planned to just mumble something about being out of his element having to go from meeting to meeting. To much social interaction made him a particularly grumpy person, but that didn't explain it entirely. Something about living in close quarters with her, and just her, again like they had their last few years at the Academy made him feel... he didn't know what he was feeling. Something new and familiar all at once. Whatever it was, he had never experienced anything quite like it.   
“I'll call the landlord. He has the extra key.” Fitz had already called him multiple times already when Jemma was out to lunch with some old friends.  
“Don't you dare! It is well past midnight and he already hates us. And for that matter so do our neighbors, complaining about our irregular work hours and late nights getting in. You are not causing him more stress.”  
“Well what else are we supposed to do?! You had to rent this walk up, with no other tenants. No one in the building to ring to open the door.”   
“We'll call a locksmith.” Jemma said sternly. She set her hands to her hips and pursed her lips, selling the confidence she had been faking all night.  
“And where,” Leo sighed slipping down on the stoop. “are we supposed to find a locksmith at this hour. I have no signal in this area, our wifi signal is to weak to connect to down here on the street. And I know for a fact you left your phone up on the foyer table.”   
Jemma leaned on the wall next to the door, and furrowed her brow. “I swear, Fitz you need to fix this, and quickly.”  
“Oh yes, I need to. And remind me, how is this my problem?”  
At the same time that Jemma started listing all the ways it was, Leo started ranting all of the ways it was most certainly was not his fault. They rambled back and forth getting progressively louder until a neighbor shouted at them from a window across the street.   
“Sorry.” They both waved their apologies at the muttering woman shutting her window. Simmons grimaced and then sighed in defeat. She slid down on the stoop and half glared out at the street “Can't you just pick the lock or something?”   
Fitz turned around, and stared at the lock. “Hmmm... maybe. I'll need a tension wrench and a pick.” He knelt down, peering at the lock like it was the enemy. “You don't happen to have two thin rods that can withstand pressure of the turning lock mechanism?” He turned to her as she wrenched the hair grips from her hair. “Simmons what are you doing? You spent hours on your hair!”  
“It's not like I was going to keep it up forever! Plus, sleeping on that many hair grips is like sleeping on a cactus.” Her hair tumbled down past her shoulders, the soft curls glinting in the streetlight. He felt strange pangs go through his body at the sight of her.   
Fitz made short work of fashioning the grips to resemble a pressure wrench and pick. Leaning in to the door, huffing quietly about how much of a pain it is to pick a lock blind. He glanced over at Simmons. Her eyes glimmered in the light of the city. They were just far enough from the center of it all that she could look up at the city she had spent her preteen years dreaming of. She always told him about how the only thing she wanted was to slip away to the city. Meld herself into the walls, and just float away. That was before SHIELD scouted her, “before she became important” as she put it one night while watching movies in her bunk. He was dumbfounded by the idea that anyone didn't think she was important. He had wanted to cry out “You are perfection. You are the smartest person at SHIELD. You are the most important person in my life. How could you ever think any thing less of your self than the everything that you are?” but he bit his tongue and just smirked when she made him pick the next movie. She looked like a dream in the blue light from the screen.   
She was more beautiful now than she had been then. Not because of the dress or the hair or anything. Simply because when she looked up at those glittering buildings, the sky line of the city she dreamed of, he knew she was the only one not seeing the city, but the possibility and the innovation that came along with it. She could see the exact angles of the buildings, the way the force distributed, the chemical bonds in the light reflecting coating on the glass windows. She could see the beauty and the science. She was the only other person he knew who looked at the world that way, and he loved being unique with her. He loved the fact that he could look at her, knowing that she was seeing all of the same things he was seeing. All of the wonder and possibility a city held.  
He smiled at her huddled form. She had her arms wrapped around her knees, and her tiny wrap around her shoulders. Her small form shuttered as a gust of wind blew through. He forgot how flimsy the material on those expensive dresses could actually be. Shrugging off his jacket he mumbled “Here.” dropping it over her shoulders, before turning back to the door.   
Simmons jumped slightly at the weight of his jacket. The warmth sent a chill down her spine. She had become more and more distracted lately around him. Her focus had always been crystal clear and diamond strong, but in these past few months, she was getting hazy. She let her eyes drift over to him. He was working at the lock, using the bent piece to hold the pressure slowly increasing it as he turned and twisted the pick piece about the lock. She kept thinking about the day on the train. What had she been thinking. She could have died. She didn't know what was in that bomb. They had a good row about it a few days later, after they both let it stew with sleep deprivation and stress.   
“What the hell were you even thinking!? Were you even thinking!? Do you have a death wish!? Because the more time we're on this plane the more it seems that way!” His concerned tone was almost matched by her indignant one.   
“I didn't have time to think I just had to react! I didn't have the option of losing... of losing my team. I just had to react!”   
“Well a fat lot of good reacting did you! Jemma...” his voice softened to a pleading tone. “Why would you do that to me? I can't lose you, we can't lose you. First with the jumping out of the plane, then tackling that guy. That could have had explosives. That could have had serious poisons, Jemma. I can't do this job without you.” Leo dropped to a bench, and ran his hands through his curly hair. “You have always been the smarter one of us two. How could you act so stupid? Your selfless streak is giving Steve Rodgers a run for his money.”  
She left the Lab after that. She wasn't sure how to respond. She had apologized, later, after a good few hours of sleep for the both of them, but something he said was stuck in her head. “You have always been the smarter one...” Honestly, how could he think that? He knew for a fact that he had the higher IQ, even though he thought IQ's were the stupidest thing there were, and he had the higher combined GPA because he had always pushed himself harder and harder in classes than she had. Goodness knows the whole team would rather him in a fire fight than her. How could he think she was the smart one? Did he really devalue him self so much? He was always the one getting the two of them out of tricky situations ever since they first teamed up way back in SHIELD Academy. He always fixed them. It was always him. He was always beside her. The whole damn time.  
“GOT IT!” Leo shouted out, then quickly spun around, thinking that there might be another neighbor complaining about the noise. When he was met by silence he turned his head to Jemma and smirked slightly. He straightened up and offered his hand to Jemma. “I like doing things with my bare hands sometimes.”   
She blushed and hoped it was too dark for him to see. She took his hand and rose wondering why she was even blushing. It was stupid. “Well your bare hands have gotten us out of more than one bad situation recently.”   
Leo's eyes softened slightly. “Well we can't say your particular touch hasn't helped at least a couple of times.”   
“No, I suppose we can't.” She weighed her options. She could open the door and walk inside, keep standing there hoping he would just kiss her already or take charge. Kiss the stupid bloke herself. The last option was out on the sheer idiocy of the idea. One... just wasn't something she could bring her self to do and she really didn't want to stand in the pseudo-cold for much longer.   
She lifted her eyes to the sky line once more. Then she dropped them back to her partner. “Thanks Fitz. For everything.”  
Fitz dropped his eyes to his feet and his cheeks flushed “Well, seeing has I only do about a half the work half of that thanks fly’s right back to you.”  
“Not for everything in the Lab, Fitz. Just... everything.” she smiled at him. One of those beautiful special smiles hiding something spectacular, something rare. Something not many people can know, but billions have shared. She leaned in and gave him a peck on the cheek. She lingered for just a second, half a head turn away from what he wanted, before pulling away.   
She walked in the building, and flicked on the light in the foyer. She started to climb the stairs, the soft light fading out with the darkness of their home. She turned her head over her shoulder. Her hair was falling in front of her eyes, but he could still just see their sparkling glint. “Coming?” She turned back, her dress swishing around her legs, his jacket still around her shoulders. Her heard her bare feet pad up the stairs, and disappear into their flat.   
Fitz looked up at the London Skyline, thanking whatever powers may be for letting him forget his key.

**Author's Note:**

> And real fast I need to thank my editor and big sister who takes my ramblings and makes it coherent! I would be nothing without her! all my love Tay!  
> Drop me a review if you can! A kudos if i deserve it! and Swing back by the series if you really did like it!


End file.
